Manny Tapia meets former WEC champ Eddie Wineland at WEC 43 in September

Two fighters both in need of a win will square off at WEC 43 when Manny Tapia (10-2-1 MMA, 2-2 WEC) meets former WEC bantamweight champion Eddie Wineland (14-6-1 MMA, 1-2 WEC).

The bout was first reported by Matt Erickson of The Northwest Times of Indiana. WEC officials could not immediately confirm the matchup when contacted by MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com), but Wineland himself confirmed the bout in the NTI report.

WEC 43 takes place Sept. 2 at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown, Ohio, and features a main event of Donald Cerrone vs. Benson Henderson for the WEC’s interim lightweight title.

Tapia, who went undefeated through his first 11 career fights (mostly in King of the Cage), went 2-0 in the WEC to earn a title shot with Miguel Torres back in December at WEC 37. Tapia suffered his first career loss with a second-round TKO stoppage, and four months later, he dropped a unanimous decision to Akitoshi Tamura at WEC 40.

Now stuck in an 0-2 skid, he’ll look to get back into title contention when he faces Wineland.

Wineland also looks to rebound from a recent defeat. He most recently fought at WEC 40 and suffered a 67-second submission loss to Rani Yahya. Prior to the loss, Wineland had won 11 bouts in a 12-fight span, which included a May 2006 first-round knockout of Antonio Banuelos to win the WEC’s first-ever 135-pound title.

Wineland was slated to fight in June at WEC 41, but he was forced out of a fight with Frank Gomez due to an elbow injury.

For complete coverage of the Versus-televised WEC 43 event, including the latest rumored fight card, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.

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